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Convert Your Delicious, but Unhealthy Recipes into Healthy Ones

Do you have delicious family recipes that have been passed down through the generations? Unfortunately, many of these old fashioned recipes use shortening, cream and other unhealthy ingredients. You almost feel guilty just reading the recipe. Wouldn't it be nice to be able to make over those unhealthy recipes and convert them into healthy ones?

Fortunately, there are a variety of healthy substitutions you can make to your recipes to make them healthy and guilt free:

1. Alter the amount of sugar in your recipes or use sugar substitutes.

You can quickly and easily make a version lower in calories and carbohydrates by reducing the amount of sugar in the recipe. You can decrease the amount of sugar by up to 1/3 in some cases without altering the taste. Another alternative is to replace the sugar in the recipe with a low calorie sugar substitute such as Splenda. Usually, Splenda can be used in equal amounts to replace sugar. If you use a different sugar substitute, you may need to experiment a bit to determine the optimal quantity.

2. Replace some of the heart unhealthy fats with healthier ingredients.

Replace half the shortening, butters, and oils with heart friendly pureed applesauce or macerated banana. For example, if the recipe calls for 1/2 cup of cooking oil, use 1/4 cup canola oil, and 1/4 cup pureed applesauce. The finished recipe should still taste moist but will be lower in calories and fat.

3. Replace whole milk with lower fat substitutes.

If a recipe calls for whole milk, use skim milk or low fat soy milk in equal proportions.

4. Determine which ingredients are extraneous to your recipe and eliminate them.

For example, do you really need to add the icing to the cake you're making or would it taste almost as good without it? If so, eliminate it along with the extra calories.

5. Consider cutting back on some of the high calorie ingredients when possible.

For example, if your chocolate chip recipe calls for 1/2 cup of pecans, go with 1/3 cup instead. This shouldn't significantly affect the basic recipe and you'll still have great tasting chocolate chip cookies.

6. Replace unhealthy oils with heart healthy ones.

In recipes where you can't eliminate or substitute for all of the oil, use a heart healthy oil such as olive or canola oil. You may not be able to reduce the calories or fat this way, but you'll make the recipe more heart healthy.

Give some of these healthy recipe substitutions a try and you can still enjoy your favorite foods without guilt. Imagine how much fun you can have creating your own healthy recipes using these substitutions.